Real America: The CEO of Target and Institutions of the Anti-Gay Christian Right

When Target’s CEO said he was
“sorry” last week for
his company’s donation to anti-gay causes,
AP, CBS,
TPM,
AOL and a number of other acronyms declared that Target had
apologized for its political donations. Yet, anyone who had ever
had an intense fight with a spouse or lover knew the “I’m sorry it
made you feel that way” nopology when they heard it. A deeper look
at Target’s Gregg Steinhafel, his political team, and his
engagement with anti-gay Christian organizations may explain why
the CEO’s actions and statements on supporting gay equality don’t
mesh-and why they probably won’t anytime soon.

But first? MoveOn.org showed up.

MoveOn.org has tried to make the Target story its own, at times
bumbling into the bear traps set for it. One can almost smell the
salivation of the Wall Street Journal writers who
framed it like so: “The campaign against Target was
orchestrated by liberal-advocacy group MoveOn.org.” No, actually,
it wasn’t.

The Journal story goes on to quote Ilyse Hogue, who uses
the opportunity to pun: “We made Target the target.” In the
process, MoveOn.org scrubbed much of the gay rights outrage, moving
the focus to just another red-state-blue-state my-team-your-team
Mission Swiftboat Accomplished debate. In the end, Ms. Hogue
demanded Target stop “meddling in our elections.” One assumes she
then tore off in the Mystery Machine.

Those in Minnesota might be left wondering where MoveOn’s Target
boycott was two years ago when the corporation and its executives
were the largest benefactors of Norm Coleman’s now legendary
campaign against Al Franken. (Coleman, by the way, supports a
gay-equality-banning constitutional amendment and, as St. Paul’s
mayor, refused to endorse the Twin Cities Pride.)

But that’s not the point, is it? Yesterday, a MoveOn.org email
hit inboxes saying “We need resources to pay for these high-profile
tactics. If we can raise $150,000-the same amount as Target donated
to a right-winger-we’re confident we can break through the media
chatter and spin.” One “high-profile” tactic proposed by MoveOn?
“Skywriting above Target’s headquarters.”

Despite being twisted into a Citizens United showboat
by MoveOn, the Target fiasco is really about the corporation’s
claim of “unwavering” support for gay equality.

* * *

The pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign is up a creek without a
paddle. It’s CEI ratings of businesses were the one thing it held
over Target. Now devastated in meaning, with Target’s gay-facing PR
already blown to smithereens, HRC’s challenge is like a fart in the
room, embarrassing the one who did it, laughed at by the one who
heard it.

One might wonder why HRC’s outrage has not been backed by PFLAG,
(Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Inc.), a gay
advocacy group with over 200,000 members and over 500 US
affiliates. PFLAG has yet to
even acknowledge the Target matter. Surprising given the
organization’s official policy statement on marriage equality,
stating that PFLAG opposes “any attempts at either the federal or
state level to introduce constitutional amendments restricting
marriage to heterosexual couples, rendering LGBT people
second-class citizens” and its recent statement regarding the Prop
8 overturn: “The right of gay and lesbian couples to wed on an
equal legal basis with heterosexual couples has long stirred
opposition not only among social conservatives but also among a
much broader swath of society. But in the time since the landmark
California Supreme Court ruling legalized gay marriage, a
significant social shift seems to have occurred.”

PFLAG’s silence is especially confusing regarding the
involvement of Randi Reitan. The gay-rights activist (and mother to
a gay son) was widely known in Minneapolis as a “PFLAG mom” long
before she
became the public face of the Target protest. Reitan’s essays
had even appeared in PFLAG publications.

PFLAG’s silence might have something to do with Brad Wagner.
Wagner is billed as Target’s “diversity consultant.” His consulting
duties appear to include being the good gay face of Target in its
time of need. When those 250,000 signatures were delivered to
Target on Friday, Wagner was trotted out, along with Alexis
Kantor-one of the co-chairs of Target’s gay and lesbian business
council and reported in the press as an actual bona fide lesbian-to
collect the ballots and placate the outraged. For his part, Wagner
offered his own apology (?) for Target: “We’re sorry that this
decision affected people that we did not intend. Or we did not
anticipate for it to intend.”

It just happens that Wagner also sits on the board of the
Twin Cities PFLAG, to which
Target is a primary donor. Wagner and PFLAG did not return multiple
requests for comment.

The twisted mind-screw is that-the money relationships between
corporations and advocacy groups they support and depend on for
street cred aside-there is a fundamental question to be asked about
how much can be expected from Target’s leadership going forward
given their personal beliefs. This is especially true of Target’s
most powerful man, CEO Gregg Steinhafel.

* * *

Steinhafel himself maybe finds his guidance as much in faith as
in a balance sheet. Though an extremely private person, a few
details point to a man and a family involved in a particular strain
of Christianity well beyond that of simply going to church on
Sunday.

When it comes to leadership advice, Steinhafel endorsed Rev. Tim
Geoffrion’s spiritual life coaching and leadership consulting,
which combines “relevant biblical teaching” with “leadership
consulting.” The Target CEO also found guidance with Terry Esau’s
“Breathing exercises with God” program which “nudges human hearts
to willingly say,… ‘I want to become the brush in Your hand,
Jesus.'” Steinhafels endorsement called the lifestyle exercises
espoused by Esau “a better way to live.”

It must be noted that there is no evidence that Steinhafel’s
spiritual guides are outwardly gay-hostile-after all, Geoffrion has
even
appeared on HuffPo.

But there’s more. Steinhafel and his wife are also top-line
donors to to the Minnesota organization “TreeHouse,” which provides
“faith-based hope and guidance to hurting teens, alumni, and
parents during difficult times.” Steinhafel also serves on its
board. The organization’s annual report highlights one teen’s
story, “Before I began TreeHouse, I didn’t even believe in God.
Because of TreeHouse, I now have a relationship with Him. I know
that God has something great in store for my life.” Another’s
success story goes, “One day I was meeting with a staff member and
we began to talk about God. I became a Christian that day and I
remember feeling for the first time in my life, I truly belonged
somewhere.”

Steinhafel’s daughter attended Wheaton College, a Christian
school that signs all incoming students to a Biblical “Community
Covenant” which condemns homosexual behavior. Wheaton expels any
homosexual it identifies. The school’s Center for Applied Christian
Ethics currently includes
resources on homosexuality such as “Science and the
Ecclesiastical Homosexuality Debates,” which classifies
homosexuality as a “crisis,” and “Understanding Homosexuality”
which argues that “The removal of homosexuality from the DSM does
not and cannot conclusively decide the issue of the pathological
status of homosexuality.”

Despite the $40,000-plus tuition per year, the Steinhafels
likely did not qualify for financial aid.

After Wheaton, the Target CEO’s daughter landed a position as a
Target Senior Business Analyst for the retailer. She also attended
the Focus on the Family Institute. That’s the same Focus on the
Family that offers “counseling
for unwanted same-sex attractions.” (The Target CEO declined an
opportunity to discuss this.)

* * *

Steinhafel also chose not to discuss his vague claim regarding
timing of “a strategic review and analysis of our decision-making
process for financial contributions.”

Target’s current
corporate statement explaining its civic activity in the realm
of political giving states, “Corporate political contributions and
related activities are reviewed regularly with our senior
management” and that before being made, donations are checked to
“determine that the contribution is consistent with our business
interests and, under the circumstances, is an appropriate means of
advancing our public policy position. This determination is
made either by our vice president and Government Affairs, executive
vice president and general counsel or our chairman and chief
executive officer.” (Emphasis, mine)

Those last two, chairman and CEO, are the same person
(Steinhafel). The executive vice president and general counsel also
happen to be the same person, Timothy Baer. Baer’s personal giving
history? Thousands to Erik Paulson, Mitch McConnell, John Kline and
the anti-gay rights Freedom First PAC-and, of course, Norm Coleman.
He has donated to a couple pro-gay rights candidates. For example,
in 2006, he gave Ember Junge $250.

That leaves just one other person in Target’s political giving
review process beside Baer and Steinhafel. Target’s VP of
government affairs is Matt Zabel, the former chief of staff for
South Dakota Senator John Thune. Beside deciding where Target’s
political money goes, as Target’s government affairs head, Zabel,
an anti-gay equality acolyte, is the corporation’s official
legislation-facing representative.

Just to be clear, the Target CEO’s commitment to gay equality
includes hiring, into one of its highest positions, the former
chief of staff for a politician who supported a constitutional
amendment banning gay equality as well as a law banning gay
adoption. Meanwhile, upon his hiring, Baer
said, “Matt brings broad knowledge on a range of important
policy issues….”

In retrospect, other Target decisions seem suspect. After giving
grants to Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and South Dakota for
every year since the late 1970s, Target’s foundation suddenly
stopped in 2001. That came a year after Target’s change from Dayton
family ownership in 2000. Yet, the Target Foundation had made these
grants for years despite a prolonged boycott effort by
anti-abortion activists. The change in policy was attributed to the
Target Foundation coming under new leadership-coinciding with Gregg
Steinhafel becoming Target’s CEO.

Then there is Target’s recent “conscience clause,” which allows
Target pharmacists to cite religious beliefs and refuse to fill
emergency contraception prescriptions without penalty. Tom Emmer,
whom Steinhafel has supported with Target’s corporate money and his
own family’s, authored Minnesota “conscience cause”
legislation.

If the three people who completely control the purse strings to
Target’s political giving all favor conservative Republicans, with
one finding his core guidance in Christianity and another (the
company’s political liaison) having actively worked to promote
anti-gay equality politics, is it philosophically reasonable to
believe the Target CEO’s support for the GLBT community could be,
in Steinhafel’s own words,”unwavering?”
In fact, from Target’s own “conscience clause,” should it be
expected to be?

Steinhafel has been adamant that the recent donations made by
Target to support anti-gay candidates like Emmer, Bachmann, Roy
Blunt, etc., were solely with business interests in mind.

So we thought it was right to ask Steinhafel directly: “do you
personally support a law in Minnesota legalizing gay marriage, as
well as national legalization of gay marriage?”

The Target CEO’s response (via Target Communications)?
“Unfortunately, we are unable to address the points or the
questions in your e-mail to Mr. Steinhafel.”

That is unfortunate. But more happily, it’s a question Mr.
Steinhafel’s daughter will not have to worry about during her
wedding at his church a month from now.

Those gay Americans who are legally denied equal rights by the
herd of politicians Target has zealously supported, including those
who it now includes in its highest ranks, can take solace in the
happiness soon to be enjoyed by the Steinhafel family. As told by
the Target CEO’s soon-to-be son-in-law:

“She turned to see my mom on the top deck of a 3 story, 17th
century, wooden steam boat. We both stood and watched as my Mom
threw a large white sign over the side of the railing. It read:
“Love of my life…” Then my dad popped up from behind the railing
and threw over the next sign, “Be my wife.” [Her] mom was next;
her’s read, “I love you forever.” And finally, [Her] dad threw over
a sign that read, “Will you marry me…?”

I turned to [her], told her absolutely nothing of what I had
planned to tell her at the massage but, instead, all that I truly
loved about her, and then paused, got down on my knee, pulled out a
ring that looked just like everything she had just told me she
wanted, and asked her to marry me.

Her answer was ‘yes.’ It was the happiest moment of my
life.”

In 2007, Abe Sauer
briefly worked for a temp agency that placed workers with Target,
though he never worked there. Instead, he briefly temped at Best
Buy. You can reach him at abesauer AT gmail DOT com.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated
that Gregg Steinhafel attended Wayzata Community Church. While
Steinhafel chose not to deny this claim when it was presented to
him during fact checking, church officials have confirmed it. It is
still true that Steinhafel’s daughter will be married at Wayzata
Community Church on Sept. 5.